English A1 Pre-2013

Notes and samples for IB English A1 before the change in the syllabus for examinations in 2013 and onward. These are still useful for you to learn how to write and structure literature analysis, however they are not relevant to the current syllabus criteria.

This is a commentary on Wilfred Owen's famous war poem, "Dulce Et Decorum Est." I got a perfect 25/25 in English A1 HL in class for this commentary. Hope its useful to you as a sample. The poem itself isn't attached with the commentary, so look it up online.

This is a commentary on Ted Hughes' poem Earth-Moon. It is one of the best commentaries I had ever written in that it received a perfect 7 (25/25 raw score) and it was days before our Paper 1 for IB, so it was the last practice poem we did. I hope you find it useful. The actual poem isn't attached with the document, so look it up online and read it before going through the commentary or I'm afraid you will be quite confused.

This is my reflective statement in English A: Literature on the stranger/the outsider by Albert Camus. In the new English A syllabus you are required to write a reflective statement based on an interactive oral to show your understanding of culture and the context. This is just to show you how to write this reflective statement, as it is a rather new thing in the IB and many might not have received the proper instructions from their teachers.
Things to remember:
Write in first person, very informal piece of writing
Consider what you discussed during the interactive oral
What have you learned and understood from the discussions
What questions do you still have/would like to explore further
Write 300-400 words
If students write fully and honestly, they should be able to get the 3 marks. No language criteria here